Interactive and supplemental content that has been made available to viewers has been done through a decoupled, separate communication channel. For instance, a producer can provide a separate communication channel with data, a video stream, or both at a URL associated with the broadcast. For example, a television station can have on-air programming and also provide supplemental content available through a website. Apart from sponsoring both sources of information, these communication channels are generally decoupled from one another. In other words, the broadcaster has only an indirect relationship to the viewer with regard to any supplemental content.
One of the biggest missed opportunities of the entire category of smart TV connected devices is the absence of easy to deploy video conferencing. As millions of consumers place these devices in their living rooms, the core use case of facilitating communications via the large screen TV is missing.